Kids in Paradise

For the third year in a row, we spent the first week of August at The St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point, CA. We left the 108 degree temperatures to arrive to a brisk 70 degrees- heavenly! Last year, I wrote about the joys of the hotel.   My review is here. 

 Today, I want to share how great this resort is for kids.  We are admitted travel snobs so our kids have quickly learned to love nice hotels, good service, chocolates on their pillows, etc. The St. Regis never disappoints. We arrived mid afternoon and our kids were greeted BY NAME with beach buckets with their names written on them. We went to our room to find a lovely fruit plate- my girls are now sold on champagne grapes!

We decided to spend the first afternoon by the pool. The family pool is huge. Unlike most hotel pools, there are numerous pool toys for the kids and pool noodles. The attendant walks around with popsicles for the kids- what more can a parent ask for?

For our first night, we decided to eat at the hotel restaurant, Motif.  Every parent that has a child with a food allergy can attest that traveling can be stressful. Not so at The St. Regis. I explained my daughter’s food allergy and the chef came out and said,”No problem at all.” Music to my ears.

Every Saturday evening, the St. Regis has a Monarch Butterfly Release. They pass out champagne for the adults and apple juice for the kids. The hotel manager was very actively involved making sure that all the kids were right up front. A man in a tuxedo reads the legend of the Butterfly and then releases a large glass container of butterflies. From there, we went to Storytelling where Alice in Wonderland read her story while the kids sat on velvet pillows surrounded by stuffed animals. After Alice read her story, the kids made S’mores around the fireplace. Fortunately, they let the parents have S’mores too! So magical!

We ate breakfast daily at Crust, a little bakery/coffee shop at the hotel- a very breakfast affordable option to feed a family, complete with kid cereals, milk, juice boxes, etc. The St. Regis is fabulous because while it is a 5 star hotel, it offers lots of affordable family dining options.

The concierges were their consistent perfect! I have never stayed anywhere that had such helpful concierges. This year, they introduced us to Balboa Island and oh, we loved it! The concierges also sent us to San Clemente Pier- this pelican was hanging out waiting for the fisherman next to him to catch a fish.

We hit our usual favorites and found a few new ones in Laguna and Dana Point including:

• Chantilly’s for amazing ice cream (ice cream tastes better near the ocean 🙂
• Greeter’s Corner for lunch (outside with ocean breezes)
• Pizza Lounge for such great affordable gourmet pizza and again right by the Pacific
• Stardust Art Festival
• Ferentellis for fabulous Italian food overlooking Dana Point Harbor
• Ruby’s Diner

I highly encourage EVERYONE of ALL AGES to check out this hotel. You’ll be thrilled you did!

The St. Regis Monarch Beach provided me with a discounted media rate for 2 of our nights. All opinions are my own.

What are you reading and where are you going?